Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything

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A guided tour through the strange science of hormones and the age-old quest to control them.

Metabolism, behavior, sleep, mood swings, the immune system, fighting, fleeing, puberty, and sex: these are just a few of the things our bodies control with hormones. Armed with a healthy dose of wit and curiosity, medical journalist Randi Hutter Epstein takes us on a journey through the unusual history of these potent chemicals from a basement filled with jarred nineteenth-century brains to a twenty-first-century hormone clinic in Los Angeles.

Brimming with fascinating anecdotes, illuminating new medical research, and humorous details, Aroused introduces the leading scientists who made life-changing discoveries about the hormone imbalances that ail us, as well as the charlatans who used those discoveries to peddle false remedies. Epstein exposes the humanity at the heart of hormone science with her rich cast of characters, including a 1920s doctor promoting vasectomies as a way to boost libido, a female medical student who discovered a pregnancy hormone in the 1940s, and a mother who collected pituitaries, a brain gland, from cadavers as a source of growth hormone to treat her son. Along the way, Epstein explores the functions of hormones such as leptin, oxytocin, estrogen, and testosterone, demystifying the science of endocrinology.

A fascinating look at the history and science of some of medicine's most important discoveries, Aroused reveals the shocking history of hormones through the back rooms, basements, and labs where endocrinology began.

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About the Author

Randi Hutter Epstein, MD is a medical writer and adjunct professor at The Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University. She is also the managing editor of the Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine. She earned a BS from The University of Pennsylvania, MS from the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University; and an MD from Yale University School of Medicine. Randi worked as a medical writer for the London bureau of The Associated Press and was the London bureau chief of Physicians Weekly. Her articles have appeared in the , among other newspapers and magazines. Randi lives in New York City with her husband, four children, two dogs, and a tortoise. is her first book.